Pie Bowl Pan

Mini pies have been on a long, upward trend over the past year or so. While they haven’t quite overtaken cupcakes in terms of popularity, there are pie-only stores popping up in cities selling sweet and savory pies to people who want something other than a cupcake as a treat. As a result of the increased popularity of pies, we have started to see more great pie baking gadgets, such as my Breville Mini Pie Maker and mini pie pans.

The most unusual thing that I’ve seen so far is this Pie Bowl Pan, made by Chicago Metallic. The pan doesn’t look like your typical pie pan because it has a distinct dome on the base. You lay your dough in it as you would for a standard pie, but after baking you have a mini pie with a deep cavity in what should be the bottom of the pie. With this pan, you’re meant to flip that pie over and serve it bottom-side up. The concavity of the pie turns it into a bowl that you can fill up to take your mini pie over the top. For instance, you can fill the bowl of an peach pie with whipped cream and hot caramel sauce. If you baked a savory meat pie, you could fill the bowl with mashed potatoes and gravy. The pan has attractively fluted edges that give the upside down pie a finished look, and it is nonstick so you’ll be able to pop your pies out easily.

The pan might seem unnecessary if you don’t want to garnish your pies with toppings and sides, but cupcakes got more complex as they became more popular, and it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to see the same thing start to happen with pies in the future, so this pan might just be the way to help you prepare for that and put your pies at the front of the trend.